Sabbaths and Snowdays

Like in many families, our kids pray for snow days. Not for the icy roads, lost wages, and upset childcare schedules that come with them, of course, but for the simple, surprising way that God seems to send a sudden Sabbath with cold or snow.

As delighted as my boys are this morning with the DeSoto School District Snow Day (and it’s not 100% glee, since there’s actually hardly any snow to play in), it’s frankly a pain for us grown-ups, I’m sure, for many parents. We have to work (well, Laura’s home sick today—but I do!). We have to shuffle schedules. We have to figure out childcare, etc.

At least twice in Kaw Prairie’s brief five years, big church events have been sabotaged by snowstorms (though whether they were official Snow Days from school I can’t recall)—one was an Alpha Bible Series barbeque banquet and the other was an Italian Fest of some sort. In both cases, the food was already paid for, the decorations were already up, so we went ahead with the event—and the few hearty souls who trudged through the bad weather took home pounds of uneaten goodies, and probably put some on their waistlines, too.

But there are no banquet leftovers for me today. Just a full day of work, a wife at home sick, and two unreasonably happy boys whom I guarantee won’t seize the moment to get ahead in their homework. So, thanks for the snow day—but no thanks!

And I wonder whether God’s regular Sabbaths are like that for us sometimes. How often do we complain or mutter on Sunday—the Christ-follower’s Sabbath for worship, service, rest, family, and recuperation? Instead of being thrilled that our busy lives are being divinely interrupted for us to learn something surprising and experience something holy, we’re annoyed that God wants our time to match His plans for us, not ours!

Now, I’m not implying we Kaw Prairiers are a grumpy bunch—not at all! In fact, we are joyful and generous. On Shoesapalooza Shoe-Collection Sunday two weeks ago, we offered almost exactly 1,000 pairs of shoes to needy adults and children around the world (and nearly every one of them were in good-to-great condition—truly unblemished sacrifices!). This week we’re a major part of the Metro Lutheran Ministries Christmas Store for Families in Need in KCMO. And as our financial pledging to the ministry fund came to a close last week, scores of Kaw Prairie families generously responded there, too—raising our budget expectations for the year 25%, and many tithing to Christ’s work for the first time! So no, we’re not slackers with our treasure.

But oftentimes we are, in contrast, tyrants with our time. Instead of praising God for being the provider of all our blessings and the redeemer of all our relationships, we might sometimes grumble that we have other, more important things that need doing Sunday morning or Monday night (OK, honestly, I don’t know very many KP-ers who grumble, but statistically, they gotta be out there! ☺) But maybe submitting our calendars to God’s serendipity is one of the blessings of these surprise Snow Days.

Now it’s 9:30am, and you know what? Laura’s still miserably sick and I’m still mightily busy, but the kids are actually playing together in the family room with the fire on and the TV off. Yup, it feels divine.

Job 376 “He directs the snow to fall on the earth
and tells the rain to pour down.
7 Then everyone stops working
so they can watch his power.